After watching his team fall to 1-2, Jets coach Herman Edwards yesterday said it’s time to go back to the power running game. The Jets will be a mean Green hitting machine Sunday when they play the Jaguars (1-1) in Jacksonville.

“You just go back to the guts of football and to me, it’s blocking and tackling,” said Edwards. “We have to do a better job of that. It starts this week.”

Edwards was quick to squelch a description of the offense as smash mouth. He did acknowledge that there probably would be running plays that emphasize a physical approach and less use of the spread passing attack.

“It sounded like Jets’ football,” offensive lineman Randy Thomas said yesterday about the return to power football.

The onus falls on coordinator Paul Hackett, who was unavailable to speak to the media yesterday, and the offensive line to set the tone. Last year there was a rift between quarterback Vinny Testaverde and Hackett, who installed the West Coast offense.

Edwards said the offense has been “trying to become too fancy” this season. And he acknowledged that the coaching staff has been too stubborn in making offensive adjustments at halftime.

“If you make one play, just do something to get a spark going,” Edwards said, “you feel a lot better in the game. We haven’t been able to do that at halftime.”

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Jets owner Woody Johnson, who frequently attends practice, spoke to reporters for a few minutes yesterday to clear up any misconceptions, such as reports that he left the Miami game early. Johnson said he stayed until Travis Minor scored with 2:08 left.

“Everybody was very upset,” said Johnson, who spoke to the team after the game. “Basically, we’re going to pull through this one. We’ve got another game next week. This one’s already history; in the bag. We feel bad about it but we’ve got to get ready for next week.”

Johnson said he asked Giants longtime owner Wellington Mara if losing gets easier in time. He said Mara told him it gets harder. “Losing is not a pleasant thing,” said Johnson.

Hofstra announced it will retire Wayne Chrebet‘s No. 3 college jersey at halftime of the Oct. 12 Homecoming Day game against William & Mary.